Hey friends!
I thought with launch coming up in 13 days it was a good time to tell you a little bit more about training camp. I touched on training camp a couple blogs ago but never really went in to depth about how it was for me.
Over all training camp was amazing. I met the incredible people I will be serving and living with for nine months. Don’t let us fool you though it was hard going into camp having not met anyone in person before. I had never gone anywhere where I didn’t know ANYBODY before, until training camp. Walking into training camp not knowing anybody was terrifying. I was so unsure what was going on and felt so alone in a crowd. When my squad started arriving it was so cool to put a person to the little avatar I’d been seeing on GroupMe for seven months. I’m not going to lie I didn’t know how I fit into our dynamic at first. That was hard.
The first four days were a struggle for me emotionally, mentally and spiritually. I had never been homesick before until training camp. I was so unsure of what was going on. All I wanted was to be home and be with my family. I would call my mom every night and tell her about my day and how I missed them. I cried to her over the phone for the first four days, telling her how amazing and hard it was. I later realized I was relying on my mom instead of talking to my team and getting support from them. I hadn’t really let them in on how lonely I was feeling. I was only making it harder on myself by not letting them in.
Then day four rolled around and that night at team time I finally opened up to my team about how I was feeling. They gave me encouragement and told me that they were there for me. I told them how the devil uses loneliness to get me to second guess myself and God. After I opened up I felt so much better and finally felt like I was supposed to be there. During that team time one of our squad leaders told me that the next time I was feeling that loneliness to pray aloud and tell the spirit of loneliness to leave me in the name of Jesus Christ. The next day was amazing. I was feeling so much better after the night before. That night I was standing in worship and could feel the loneliness start to creep back over me. I stopped singing and said out loud “Spirit of loneliness, by gone from me in the name of Jesus Christ.” And just like that I could feel the loneliness leave me. It was amazing! The best part of this story is that ever since that night I haven’t felt lonely, not once not for one second. God really is amazing and really does answer prayers.
After that night training camp was so much more enjoyable. Of course it was still challenging but I felt like it was worth it. I wasn’t so afraid to talk to my squad mates or to be apart of conversations that were happening around me. Time started flying by and I started acting more like myself again. I am so thankful for my team, squad and the leaders God has put over us. They are now my family and my home away from home. I know God has put this squad together for a purpose and that He has a plan for us. I miss my team and my squad and I am so excited to launch with them in 13 days!!!
A big thank you to everyone who has given and made it possible for me to be apart of this amazing squad! We are so close to being fully funded, that is so a God thing! It truly is amazing! Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to read my blog and to read about what God is already doing through this mission!
